West Virginia Does It Again

Bobby Byrd may have voluntarily vacated his position as Chairman of the US Senate Appropriations Committee but the octogenarian ain’t dead yet.

The senior West Virginia bureaucrat somehow managed to insert 9.5 percent of additional pork in the Agriculture Department’s $615.8 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Obama signed in late February.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the breakdown of funding yesterday, saying: "Aging water and waste infrastructure systems threaten the ability of rural communities to provide clean, reliable drinking water to residents and protect precious environmental resources. These investments will help bring increased economic benefits to rural America by providing needed water, water systems and creating jobs."

Maybe. Maybe not.

Two projects were highlighted:

The Yuma County Improvement District in Arizona was selected to receive $14.6 million to connect 782 homes to the Yuma municipal treatment system. The project will reduce groundwater contamination from failing septic systems and improve the water quality of the Colorado River. This translates to a cost of $18,670 per home, which in my opinion, is less expensive than upgrading existing individual septic systems.

In New Mexico, the Village of Ruidoso and City of Ruidoso Downs have been selected to receive $9.7 million to build a wastewater treatment plant that will serve approximately 12,000 people. The current treatment plant's outflow runs into the environmentally sensitive Rio Ruidoso and is not in compliance with water quality regulations. The new plant will treat combined flows from both communities before they are discharged into the stream.

On the surface it looks like the New Mexico project is a good idea. But check out the web site for Ruidoso and one will find the village is toted as the New Mexico Vacation destination”.

Included is a ski resort, a national forest, two casinos, horse racing, golf courses and a host of fine dining, shopping areas and art museums.

Will the stimulus money help the private citizen’s individual septic problems or will it help a select few corporations make even more money?

But back to Bobby Byrd.

West Virginia leads the nation with 23 separate projects in 22 jurisdictions totaling $58,417,800. Michigan is second in number of projects (18) but got more money ($63,442,000) and, surprisingly, Maine with 18 projects is third on the list but just three percent of the money ($17,925,000).

Thirty-four states got money. New Jersey had only one project for less than a million dollars and the other 16 states must already have pristine waters.

The primary purpose of the stimulus bill is to create or save jobs while helping to protect the environment.

I truly hope it succeeds in that goal. But I doubt it. I suspect, at least in West Virginia’s case, there will be a lot more sewage treatment plants named for the 91 year-old senator.